Joining Jobtrain’s Giles Heckstall-Smith on this webinar was HR Operations & Payroll Manager at a Multi Academy Trust, Natalie Page. They discussed the challenges of creating positive partnerships, especially with the Hiring Manager community.
About Natalie Page
Natalie has worked for the Multi Academy Trust for 7 years and prior to that, managed recruitment in the retail sector at H&T Pawnbrokers.
Giles in conversation with Natalie Page
How have you worked to overcome engagement issues with Hiring Managers?
From a retail perspective at H&T Pawnbrokers, HR did not get involved in interviews, they were completed by Area and Store Managers and were generally self-sufficient. Help was provided by the Recruitment team to attract the right candidates and once the interview was complete, they managed the candidate quickly and efficiently to bring them on board as soon as possible.
The Education sector is very different. So many people are involved in the recruitment process, not just the line manager and the candidate, so interviews can be quite intense. HR always sit on non-teaching staff interview panels, but not for teaching staff.
In both sectors, I find that the key to engagement with Hiring Managers is listening to them and understanding their difficulties or challenges. Within Education, things are constantly changing. For example, in relation to safeguarding we need to ensure Hiring Managers are always up to date and engaged with the changes. In all sectors there are different challenges for different Hiring Managers so building relationships and understanding those challenges is key.
Have you given Hiring Managers any input in the recruitment process?
Yes, at H&T Pawnbrokers we used scored assessment questions as part of the application process, so it was important to us to understand how to weight the questions effectively. We worked with the Area Managers to understand how they weighted responses when they were reviewing CVs and what areas they placed the most importance on.
For example, candidates with previous retail experience would score higher than those without. We then selected a series of questions to build into a shortlisting matrix which was automated so the scores generated would automatically produce a shortlist of candidates for interview. This reduced our shortlisting time and meant that Hiring Managers only needed to spend time interviewing candidates that met their requirements.
Did you have any challenges gaining buy in from managers upfront?
Initially yes, as Hiring Managers saw a process that worked and that they were familiar with rather than a process that could be improved to reduce the amount of time they had to spend reviewing applications. Once they looked at the process in a different way and we highlighted the benefits with them, they were more inclined to participate.
The key thing for us was about building trust with the Hiring Managers. When I first joined the Trust, everything was paper based so forms would go missing and we needed to ask for them to be provided again so the managers did not trust the process. By listening to their feedback, implementing an ATS to support the change and communicating back the measures we were putting in place along with the expected benefits, we started to re-build those relationships.
Do you have any tips for obtaining clear requirements for a job specification?
At H&T Pawnbrokers this was easy as we had standard job specifications for our core roles, and these were the roles that we predominately recruited for.
In Education, everyone has a view so a decision on a job profile must be agreed by many people. We have a framework we work to with job profiles, based on our job families so we cannot just make changes, they must be based on the standard framework. The ATS helps us to keep to those standards as we use templates to create new vacancies to ensure consistency.
Some Hiring Managers need ‘handholding’ through the recruitment process. Could you influence people to take more responsibility?
In retail, Area Managers are more involved, they have more time and ultimately they want good staff in their shops.
In Education it is slightly different. There are far more stakeholders and some of the more senior people do not want to login to a system to complete their own shortlisting. In some cases, we complete actions for other people, but they have the self-service functionality to do this where they can.
How important is it for senior stakeholders to influence managers to play their part and use the technology?
Ideally everyone should be involved. We provide training for all users, install links to the ATS on iPads, on desktops and save links as favourites, but in short, some schools just don’t recruit as often as others. so they don’t need to use the ATS as frequently.
How do you make training resources readily available for Hiring Managers?
When we first implemented Jobtrain we visited Hiring Managers, trained them all individually and left a user guide for them to follow. If I were to do this again now, I would record an online training session and share the link for people to re-watch when required. That said, I always take an opportunity to spend time with Hiring Managers where I can as we always learn something new or can provide updates that will benefit them.
What are your tips around working with your technology provider to provide training and support?
We are an organisation supporting over 1,200 employees across 10 schools and we’re only just starting to implement a HR system.
Jobtrain has helped us manage this situation and we would not have been able to manage the volumes of recruitment we have without the Jobtrain ATS in place. Having key support at the initial set up process and being able to pick up the phone and ask a question to someone who both understands your account and the complexities of your organisation is invaluable.
At the end of the discussion, Giles took the opportunity to share a preview of JT Mobile, our mobile focussed platform designed specifically for Hiring Managers.
JT MOBILE FOR HIRING MANAGERS
To support Hiring Managers further, technology must be able to be accessed quickly, easily and ‘on the go’.
For Jobtrain clients, JT Mobile looks familiar, provides managers with key notifications, live metrics, the facility to view their jobs, recent applications from candidates, and any upcoming interviews. Managers can see how many candidates they need to review, any incoming text messages from candidates and even review their new starters providing real transparency in the recruitment process.
JT Mobile
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